An erupting cumulonimbus cloud grew into a thunderstorm. An unusual fly encountered while gardening. A plethora of roadside flowers blossomed after a rainy month of May. Six fox kits frolic in my backyard. In the past few weeks, these experiences have instilled in me a sense of wonder. What is this thing we call “wonder”? Why do we have such an emotion? Does it indicate to us anything about the universe we live in?
The Oxford dictionary describes wonder as “a feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable.” I find this a bit too narrow in its view for I may experience a sense of wonder even with things that are expected, familiar or explicable. I never cease to be amazed at the function of my own hand – the same fingers which can grip a hammer to pound nails can also maneuver a thread through the eye of a needle – as Isaac Newton once said, “In the absence of any other proof, the thumb alone would convince me of God’s existence.”
Descartes enumerated wonder among his six primitive passions which he used to explain the mind-body duality of humans. He recognized that wonder is distinct from the other passions (love-hate, desire, joy-sadness) as it neither involves an evaluation of objects or persons nor does it serve to “move” us toward or away from its object. “[Wonder] is our response to those features of the world worthy of our consideration – something useful both for the preservation of the mind-body union and for the soul itself in its pursuit of knowledge.”[1]
The way in which wonder operates seems to be unique to humans. Some animals exhibit actions which portray curiosity or perplexity, but nothing comes about from it. For animals, once the object is determined to be safe or not, it receives no more attention. Wonder moves us in a different kind of direction – one that is not tied to mere survival. While the sense of wonder for humans may come and go, it has potential to be the impetus for curiosity, creativity and worship. Consequently, wonder is the common link between the uniquely human endeavors of science, art and religion – they all begin with wonder.
One of the curious things about wonder is that the human activities which proceed from wonder may result in further wonder. It is in some way self-perpetuating – it does not entirely depend on chance encounters with unusual things in our environment. It can be stimulated with intention. Scientists whose wonder prompts the proposal and testing of hypotheses end up with more questions than answers. Artists whose wonder inspires them to create paintings or sculptures inspire wonder in those who view their work and may inspire further creativity. The wonder which directs people to worship in turn seems to promote greater wonder as well.
In a 2014 survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, which intended to describe the religious landscape of America, asked a question regarding the frequency with which participants experienced a sense of wonder. Interestingly, not all people experience wonder to the same degree (46% felt a sense of wonder at least once per week, and 24% reported seldom or never experiencing a sense of wonder). A similar pattern of frequency held across different demographic categories: gender, race, political affiliation or belief in God. What really seems to move the needle is the practice of spiritual disciplines. The more frequently people pray, meditate, read scriptures and attend worship services, the more frequently they experience a sense of wonder. [2]
So, how did we come by this emotional faculty? Philosopher Jesse Prinz notes that these “endeavours are not essential for survival, which means they probably aren’t direct products of natural selection. Art, science and religion are all forms of excess; they transcend the practical ends of daily life. Perhaps evolution never selected for wonder itself.” He muses that, “wonder did not evolve for any purpose. It is, rather, a by-product of natural inclinations, and its great human derivatives are not inevitable. But wonder is the accidental impetus behind our greatest achievements.”[3]
As an atheist, Prinz can only surmise that our sense of wonder is just a happy accident which has brought about all the great accomplishments of our species – it is the only explanation available to him. Realize that Prinz makes a misstep by inferring somethings may evolve for a purpose. Evolution is not capable of the insight, foresight and intention which would be needed to make anything for a purpose. That this emotion does not produce a predictable outcome does not mean that its presence in the human psyche is accidental. If it is there for a purpose, though, that would require an explanation which extends beyond mere synapses and biochemical pathways.
Prinz also remarks that wonder “imbues us with the sense of the extraordinary”. I find this to be an odd comment for a materialist to make. If all the universe is just matter which has come about by chance, then we should not regard anything as awesome, amazing or extraordinary. The world simply is the way the world is. It is physics and chemistry. Anything which keeps us from acquiring food, water and shelter is a needless distraction. The materialist worldview, if honest, should effectively stifle the sense of wonder.
I sense that Prinz is dancing around the very thought he wants to avoid – that wonder in fact does have a purpose – that we can find the world to be amazing – that there is something which transcends the human experience which justifies such thinking. But this makes no sense to the materialist.
The function or purpose of wonder seems to me better understood in the larger context of what we perceive to be the function or purpose of our world. Here I defer to the work of Gonzalez and Richards who made a case for this in their book Privileged Planet. They detailed many of the highly improbable conditions which were necessary to enable life to exist on this planet as well as the highly improbable conditions which enable earth to be a most excellent platform from which to observe and understand the universe in which we live. “The correlation between habitability and measurability seems to be the result of more than mere chance. On the contrary, it is a peculiar and telling pattern…we have good reason to suspect that things have been intentionally arranged, even if this came about through the interaction of natural laws and initial conditions.”[4]
So, it would seem, our planet is designed for a purpose. When we couple the purpose of our planet with the high improbability of producing an extremely complex, intelligent, and sentient observer with an innate ability to wonder and ask meaningful questions about our universe, we should be able to extend this conclusion to ourselves. We as humans are also designed for at least one purpose which is to discover. “Scientific discovery enjoys a sort of cosmic prestige, but a prestige apparent only to those open to the possibility that the cosmos exists for a purpose.”[5]
Our sense of wonder connects us to an objective purpose. An objective purpose cannot be self-ascribed, but must be conferred upon us – being designed for a purpose infers a designer. In this regard, it seems to me our sense of wonder is evidence of One who made us and imbues us with this sense of wonder in order that we might seek and discover things in the world and ultimately seek after the Creator himself.
From the Judeo-Christian worldview, this purpose of discovery is not accidental – it is a drive which exists on many levels. The writer of Ecclesiastes recognizes that the pursuits of man are many, and that all these pursuits, including the pursuit of knowledge, are vanity apart from knowing and following God. Commenting on the pursuit or quest of knowledge, Kaiser writes:
“This quest is a deep-seated desire, a compulsive drive, because man is made in the image of God to appreciate the beauty of creation (on an aesthetic level); to know the character, composition, and meaning of the world (on an academic and philosophical level); and to discern its purpose and destiny (on a theological level) … Man has an inborn inquisitiveness and capacity to learn how everything in his experience can be integrated to make a whole.”[6]
Our sense of wonder is at the heart of all of this. It is an emotion instilled within in us to urge us to find our way back to the One who made us.
[1] Descartes on the Emotions, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/emotions-17th18th/LD2Descartes.html#ClaPas, accessed 6/8/23.
[2] Pew Research results from the religious landscape survey https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/religious-landscape-study/frequency-of-feeling-wonder-about-the-universe/#beliefs-and-practices. Accessed 5/20/23.
[3] Jessen Prinz, “How Wonder Works”, https://aeon.co/essays/why-wonder-is-the-most-human-of-all-emotions, accessed 6/1/23.
[4] Guillermo Gonzalez and Jay W. Richards, The Privileged Planet (Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 2004), 305-307.
[5] Ibid, 311.
[6] Walter C. Kaiser, jr., Ecclesiastes: Total Life (Chicago: Moody,1979), 66.
Cicada Song 